Metro's new grading system praised for giving students second chances

Metro school board hears how new plan gets results

Sep. 25, 2013

The changes in the grading system in Metro were put in place at the beginning of the school year as part of a push to evaluate students entirely on their comprehension of material outlined in state standards. / John Partipilo / File / The Tennessean

Written by

Brian Wilson

The Tennessean

School officials gave high marks to a newly implemented grading system that prioritizes testing and eliminates zeroes from gradebooks at a Metro Nashville school board work session Tuesday evening.

The changes were put in place at the beginning of the school year as part of a push to evaluate students entirely on their comprehension of material outlined in state standards. The policies mandate that students are graded entirely on in-class work, offered the chance to retake an exam twice and are given scores no lower than 50 percent on assignments.

A panel of teachers, principals and school administrators defended the system in front of the Metro Nashville Board of Education, which gave them a sympathetic hearing. Supporters said they are meant to give students an accurate reflection of their knowledge of the material bound to reappear in standardized testing and to encourage them to keep trying to learn new material even when they struggle to understand it.

Standardizing the grading system is a common-sense decision that keeps classes focused on standards already put in place as opposed to individual daily work, said Pamela Newman, a fifth-grade teacher at Dupont-Hadley Middle School in Old Hickory.

“An ‘A’ in my math class should be the same as any other class in the school district,” Newman said. “We’re all assessing the same things.”

Because of the option to take tests again after some sort of reteaching, students also are more likely to continue trying to learn the material in front of them, said supporters of the plan, including school board member Sharon Gentry, who represents Bordeaux and northwest Davidson County.

Though few on the board disagreed with the changes, many acknowledged the negative reaction some parents and teachers have had to the recently enacted standards-based grading system.

Amy Frogge, who represents Bellevue, Belle Meade and Sylvan Park, was the panel’s only critic, saying the constant testing of students makes the teaching considerably less effective.

“My sense is that there’s heavy-handed accountability coming from the state,” Frogge said.

Newman, who supports the changes, said the process may be burdensome now but should get easier with time.

“Hopefully, it’ll be better next year, when we’re not writing three assessments for every standard,” Newman said. “It’s a lot now.”

Jay Steele, the school district’s chief academic officer, said the system is part of what he called “continuous improvement,” not just the addition of burdensome requirements.

“It’s really good teaching,” Steele said. “A good teacher knows what the standards are, they know where their kids are, they know what the assessment data tells them and they know the instructional practices that are going to make that shift in the kids mastering that standard.”